The ocarina is a
roundish egg-shaped
instrument with
fingerholes on its sides. It can be found in Central and South
America, but it is not unique to those cultures alone. The
ancient Chinese had an
equivalent musical instrument which they called 埙 (xun1*).
The xun* was originally used in ancient China as a
tool for hunting
birds. The first ones were made out of
stone or
bone, and later of
ceramic. Like those found in
Latin America, some were fashioned into shapes of various
animals, like fish, birds or turtles. The oldest xun was found in
Zhejiang province; it was about 7000 years old, oval in shape and had only one fingerhole.
--------- {------sound hole
/ \
/ o o \
/ \
| o o |
| |
| o o {------ fingerhole
\ /
\ /
\ /
\-------/ {----- mouth fitted here.
Top view of an ocarina/xun. Shape of instrument, the number and
positions of fingerholes may vary.
The
development of the xun took place around the time of the
Xia dynasty. This was discovered when
archaeologists found these instruments in common graves of that period. They had three fingerholes and could produce the notes do, mi, so, la and fa. The
shape of the instrument and
number of fingerholes of the xun were roughly
standardised in the
Shang dynasty. Most xun of that dynasty had 5 fingerholes and produced sound of much better
quality. They were
able to
produce all the tones and half-tones in a single
octave.
By the
Chou dynasty, it was a common instrument and was played in the
imperial courts. A book classifying instruments in this period listed the xun as an "instrument of the
soil" (土类乐器), meaning that it was made from
clay. The design of the xun varied according to whether it was played for
enjoyment or for
celebrations. The xun made for enjoyment purposes were as large as a
goose egg and produced a lower
pitch, while the xun made for celebration purposes were about the size of a
chicken egg and had a higher pitch.
* xun1 refers to the
pronounciation of the word in
Hanyu Pinyin. The "1" behind refers to the
tone assigned to the character 埙. However, throughout the rest of the article, I dropped the "1" and simply called the instrument "xun".
Sources:
http://www.chinamedley.com/langyuan/xun/
They also have pictures of xun taken from archaeological digs.